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| Liverpool's Old Dock and Custom House, 1773 |
Logan has managed to slip, relatively unnoticed, into the dirty streets by the docks of Liverpool. He was free of at least the immediate attention of English authorities, but he was ready to be away from here, too, knowing that he had a new set of dangers. Like any crowded city, pickpockets came out of shadows and sidled up quietly, tho' they would have been sore disappointed with this bedraggled Scottish fugitive, who had no purse at all. He was far more worried about the crimps. These unscrupulous men preyed on the down and out, the sailors whose pay had already been spent on ale and women, or were still too drunk to know that they had been shanghaied. They might have been working for some equally amoral captain who needed whatever crew he could get, but the crimps were most interested in their cut than who they got or how they got them--a little bribery, a quick knock to the head, it didn't matter. The unlucky seaman could suddenly find himself signed to a wicked vessel with a vicious commander for next to no pay. More insidious were the "spirits," who lured the vulnerable with immediate cash and the promise of good wages but were actually indenturing their careless prey. Finally, there was the ever-present risk of the press gang. This was less of a concern, as there was no war going on; the War of the Spanish Succession had just ended, and in fact many soldiers at sea were out of work...and turning pirate. Nevertheless, there were many reasons for Logan to not linger in port.
